NBA commissioner Adam Silver on Friday said his personal preference is for the play-in tournament to continue after this season, and that it was a success because of the incentive it gave teams to care until the end of the regular season.

Source: Tim Bontemps of ESPN

ANALYSIS: While on ESPN radio today with Keyshawn, J-Will, and Zubin, Silver expanded on his support for the play-in tournament and areas where they can improve the tournament: 

"I haven't made any secret that I want it to be [around long-term]. I have two constituencies I need to convince of that. One is the 30 teams, and I think for the most part they've supported it. Again, I understand the sentiment if I were a team -- a seven-seed in particular -- the notion [that] after a long season, you could potentially play out of the playoffs; I understand those feelings. I think at the same time, the teams recognize the amount of additional interest we've created over the last month of the season plus those play-in games make it worth it."

"Of course, the other constituency is the players. For example, one player, who is on the executive committee of the union, said to me yesterday that he really likes the play-in tournament but he felt it could potentially be a bit unfair. For example, if you were the seventh seed and you were a significant number of games ahead of the eight-seed, the notion that you could somehow lose two games and be out of the playoffs seems unfair."

The play-in tournament will wrap up today with the Grizzlies-Warriors battling it out for the eighth seed in the West, but so far the results of the play-in games haven't changed the standings at all since the season ended. The Celtics still ended up as the seventh seed and the Wizards took the eighth seed, which is exactly how the standings looked after Sunday's finale. If the Warriors win tonight against Memphis, it will be the same case in the West, with the Lakers staying at the seventh seed and the Warriors at eighth.

Silver admits that some tweaks may need to be made, as our Alex Kennedy called for in this piece.

Although the Eastern Conference's play-in games weren't competitive at all, the West has made up for it, as the Lakers-Warriors game on Wednesday gave ESPN their most-viewed game since the 2019 Western Conference Finals. The league may end up tinkering with the play-in tournament format for next year, but all signs point to it staying beyond this season.